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Thursday, August 01, 2013

Barren County, KY. Sheriff Sentenced on Two Counts of Obstructing Justice

Barren County, Ky., Sheriff Christopher Brian Eaton, 42, of Glasgow,
Ky., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr.
to serve an 18-month prison term followed by two years of supervised
release, after a jury convicted him on May 9, 2013, of two counts of
obstructing justice during a federal criminal civil rights investigation
conducted by the FBI. Eaton was convicted of corruptly persuading two
of his deputies to write false reports regarding an alleged unreasonable
use of force against a man arrested by Eaton and several of his
deputies outside a church on Feb. 24, 2010.

Eaton was convicted of directing the first deputy, who did not
participate in the arrest, to write a report which falsely stated that
Eaton and the deputy had walked back to the area where the individual
had been arrested and located a knife lying on the ground. Eaton was
convicted of directing the second deputy, who had participated in the
arrest, to falsify reports and testify falsely in state court
proceedings that that the victim had pulled a knife on Eaton during the
victim’s arrest, when Eaton and his deputy fully knew this not to be
true.

“Obstruction of justice by law enforcement officers strikes at the heart
of the fundamental right of every citizen accused of a crime to due
process of the law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn
Samuels of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“As the trial, verdict and sentence in this case demonstrate, the
Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division will vigorously
prosecute law enforcement officers who violate their sworn duty to
respect and enforce the constitutional rights of every person.”

This case was investigated by the Louisville, Ky. Division of the FBI
and was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Roy Conn and Sanjay Patel of the
Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.